Courage has shaped my life in many ways including trying new things even if I don’t feel comfortable with it, making new friends after moving, and learning where to draw the line with toxicity and negativity with friends.

When I try new things, it makes me anxious but my sister, Kamden, is always there to help me and encourage me to do what makes me happy. This is actually something that I struggle with, mostly because I don’t really enjoy when people are mad at me so when I am given a decision that I have to make, I get nervous about what to do because I don’t want people to be angry with me. I have gotten so much better at making decisions for myself and not based on other people and their opinions. Lately though, it has gotten a little worse because of the drama and toxicity going on at my school, which my friends are involved with and trying to involve me in as well.

Moving is definitely one of the hardest parts of being a military family. I lived in Fort Drum, New York for about four years and then I had to move here, to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here but that is only because I have lived here for almost three years now. But when I first moved here, I thought I wasn’t going to fit in here at all. I moved here in the middle of sixth grade which wasn’t easy because all the kids in my class were all more advanced than I was because I didn’t take any advanced classes since I got there in the middle of the year. Sixth grade was tough but then I got to seventh grade and I felt more comfortable with it because I was in classes that I enjoyed and knew I was able to keep up with. I made many friends in middle school, mainly seventh graders but also some eighth graders who were in my German 1 class. They made me feel so welcome and I felt more confident and encouraged to finish off middle school and jump into my freshman year, which is what I’m currently in now. Now, I have many friends in many different grades. Most of them are my sister’s or my brother’s friends but they are all very kind and close with my family.

This year has gotten better but first semester, there was a lot of drama in my friend group which resulted in me losing many people. Some people that I lost as friends stayed away because they thought I was the cause of most of their drama but I usually don’t do much. One girl, Abigail, who got angry with me over some guy, started an argument with me that I just wanted to finish so we stopped talking to each other for about a month or two. We realized that neither of us were the cause of the issue between each other but that the problem was because of the guy we were arguing over (aka my best friend). He was a whole other issue that was so toxic in our friendship. Abby and I became friends again and now we’re both really close.

Courage has always been in my life even when I don’t believe in myself. It has made me who I am today and it has helped me be more confident in all that I do.